I can understand why a room full of grown men might not respond well to daily dressing downs, particularly from a new head coach not much older than than they are. But that's the situation in Kansas City.
Herm Edwards got his walking papers after a 2-14 effort last season, which, inexplicably, was only half as many games as he won the year before. Scott Pioli, who replaced Carl Peterson as the team president and general manager, hired former Cardinals offensive coordinator Todd Haley to help turn things around.
The Chiefs got right to work on the rebuilding: they sent a second-round pick to the Patriots for Matt Cassel, giving them a franchise quarterback and somebody for Haley, whose success in Arizona landed him this gig, to build the team around.
FanHouse's crack squad of savvy fantasy football personnel put our five heads together and amassed consensus rankings for non-keeper, standard scoring leagues. We'll update as the season gets closer, but this is our "incredibly early yet still fun" version.
Was last season the year of the quarterback or what? You still had the old reliables like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Kurt Warner and Donovan McNabb doing their thing, but a whole new crop of passers have elevated themselves. Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers and Jay Cutler led the way for the youth movement. You could have even waited toward the end of your draft and landed stud QBs in Matt Ryan and Tyler Thigpen (who would have been waiver-wire fodder). Team all that with Tom Brady's Week 1 injury, and we had a really interesting season. Let's see how they fall out presently for 2009.
Jason Whitlock has reason to be concerned about Matt Cassel. He's the Chiefs new quarterback, doesn't have much in the way of experience, and will make nearly $15 million in 2009. Oh, and it's easy to be skittish when Cassel succeeds the likes of Damon Huard, Brodie Croyle and Tyler Thigpen.
Of the three, Thigpen probably has the most potential, but the new regime made it clear that he wasn't in their long-term plans when they traded for Cassel. But that doesn't mean Whitlock is convinced.
Specifically, he's worried that the Chiefs "have little interest in signing Matt Cassel to a long-term contract before the start of the season." There were rumors during draft weekend that the Chiefs gave Cassel a six-year deal ($36 million guaranteed). Untrue, it turned out.
For all you chumps who enjoyed a Tom Brady-less 2008 New England Patriots team, I got some bad news for you: Dreamboat is back. And to hear Peter King write it (in between uncontrollable sobs of joy, surely), Tommy Terrific is better, faster, stronger, so on and so forth.
Last September, Brady's season ended after just 15 plays. The Chiefs' Bernard Pollard tackled him low and blew up his ACL in the process. Following knee surgery (and a couple subsequent procedures to deal with a staph infection), Brady spent the last seven months planning a marriage and plotting his comeback.
Doug Flutie and Vinny Testaverde ain't walkin' through that door. Not yet, anyway. It's May, the first round of minicamps are over, and the Patriots are still without a veteran backup quarterback.
Just like the previous two years when Matt Cassel served as Tom Brady's understudy. And last fall when Cassel started 15 games after Bernard Pollard blew up Brady's knee 15 minutes into the 2008 season. But this summer is different; New England traded Cassel to Kansas City and despite a glut of available veteran free-agent quarterbacks, the Patriots decided to keep it in-house.
A year ago, Eric Mangini, still the Jets head coach, was contemplating making a quarterback change. Chad Pennington and Kellen Clemens were scheduled to fight for the job, and Mangini, uninspired by his options, eventually traded for Brett Favre and released Pennington.
After an 8-3 start, the Jets, largely due to Favre's inconsistent play, finished 1-4 and missed the playoffs. Pennington signed with the Dolphins and promptly led them to the AFC East title.
Mangini is now with the Browns (and Favre is retired, at least momentarily), but last year's experiences may have influenced his decision with his new club. Leading up to last month's draft, speculation had Cleveland trading Brady Quinn. It didn't happen, and apparently there were plenty of opportunities.
Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 2009 Draft Grades.
Compared to last April, the 2009 Chiefs draft was unremarkable. A year ago, the team landed five players who contributed immediately, and a handful of others will get opportunities this season.
But unlike 2008, Kansas City finally has a franchise quarterback. New general manager Scott Pioli sent a second-round pick to New England for Matt Cassel (and linebacker Mike Vrabel). Cassel, who went nine years between starts, led the Patriots to an 11-5 record last season and parlayed that into a handsome payday (eventually) and a starting gig.
A fresh-faced Bill Belichick protégé, McDaniels had coordinated up the most explosive offense in NFL history: the 2007 New England Patriots. As often happens when coaches relocate, McDaniels wanted to bring in his "his" players to run "his" system. Hours into free agency, the Broncos inked former Pats wideout Jabar Gaffney. And then, after Denver tried to acquire Matt Cassel, incumbent Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutlerdemanded a trade, things got messy, and, ultimately, the Broncos ended up with a couple first-round picks, Kyle Orton and a lot of questions.
The Chiefs continued their Scott Pioli-led roster overhaul, signing unrestricted free agent center Eric Ghiaciuc away from Cincinnati. Ghiaciuc started 16 games for the Bengals last season, and made at least 12 starts each of the last three seasons.
Kansas City already has two centers on its roster, including Rudy Niswanger, who made 15 starts in 2008. What happened prior to Pioli's hire, though, seems to be pretty inconsequential these days -- case in point, Tony Gonzalez's unloading last week. Pioli has made it very clear that he will be heading into 2009 and beyond with a roster filled by guys who fit his vision.
Another NFL draft has come and gone, and it's possible that you spent much of your weekend glued to a television set laughing at the Raiders and screaming for your team to find the next Tom Brady at the bottom of the sixth-round. If you're like me, you live in an area of the country where your only option for draft day coverage is ESPN's wire-to-wire mayhem.
If you happened to miss the draft, or watched it on the NFL Network, here's what you missed.
I can understand why a room full of grown men might not respond well to daily dressing downs, particularly from a new head coach not much older than than they are. But that's the situation in Kansas City. 
FanHouse's crack squad of savvy fantasy football personnel put our five heads together and amassed consensus rankings for non-keeper, standard scoring leagues. We'll update as the season gets closer, but this is our "incredibly early yet still fun" version. 
Jason Whitlock has reason to be concerned about 
For all you chumps who enjoyed a 
Doug Flutie
A year ago, 
Who moved to the head of the NFL class during the draft? Find out with FanHouse's team-by-team 
It's been more than four months since 
The Chiefs continued their 
